I love holiday weekends. Jilda and I are going out of town for a couple days for a long deserved holiday. We're going to go to a hotel, lay out by the pool, sip drinks with tiny umbrellas in them and catch a concert.
I'm not sure when my life got so complicated, but we find it more difficult to get away. When we were younger, we would throw our stuff in the back of our old car and hit the road and go to festivals, the mountains, the beach or simply to visit friends. It didn't take a lot of money or planning. We often flew by the seat of our pants.
On our 15th anniversary we went to Helena, Arkansas to visit our friend Tommy Wilson who was the publisher of the newspaper there. Helena is a neat old southern town on the Mississippi just across the river from Memphis. Tommy arranged for us to have a suite in the Edwardian Inn which is a remarkable old Bed and Breakfast. The old home pre-dated the Civil War and had been restored. The property was near a Confederate Cemetery where a number of generals were burried. It was a remarkable experience.
Our room on the second floor, had a porch with a view of the Mississippi River. The woman that owned the B&B was a remarkable cook so we had gourmet meals and good wine. The room had fresh flowers and chocolates on the pillows.
We attended a Blues Festival in Helena too. We saw all the great blues players. Buddy Guy, Rita Mae Hemphill, the Kinsey Report, and Levon Helm who was actually born in Helena.
On Saturday night we were invited to a shot house out in the middle of a Mississippi cotton field. We were the only white folks there. Some folks might have been uncomfortable but we were treated well and you have not heard Delta Blues until you've heard shot-house blues.
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy your long weekend and that you get a chance to do something fun.
I look forward to reading your blog each day, it's just great!! As I am from a sunburnt country in the southern hemisphere the term shothouse is new to me?? I am mad about music of all types, though my blog does not necessarily reflect that...
ReplyDeleteHey there, thanks for leaving a note on Life 101. I have Google Analytics and I could see someone from Australia was visiting my blog. I bookmarked your site and will visit often.
ReplyDeleteYou said that you had never heard the team "shothouse". A shothouse is a tearm associated with backwood bars that are usually illegal. They sprang up during the early part of the last century. Black folks in the Mississippi Delta and poor white farmers in the rural south (U.S.) would flock to these shothouses on weekends to get tanked up on cheap whiskey (often homemade) and listen to music. Most of the great Blues players came up playing in these bars. They can be anywhere from very interesting social gathering places to downright scary.
You mentioned that you love music. I too love music of all kinds. My wife and I, as you may have read on the blog, are songwriters. We have had the good fortune to write with some really good songwriter including a really good Country Music artist whose name Lamar Morris. I recently started building a website for him at http://lamarmorris.com I will be adding pictures and stories to his site. He recorded one of our songs and it got air play there in Australia and also in Europe.
Take care and if you get to travel to the American south, please give us a call.
Rick Watson
Also, Alphabet soup, I was going to leave a comment on your blog, but you have it restricted to team members. I really like the concept of your blog. I struggle from time to time trying to come up with ideas. I may borrow your approach for a month to see if I can do it.
ReplyDeleteRick
Thanks for the info. I am very new at this & will follow up your comments remark. Good luck with the alphabet style, it is a bit restricting but makes me think more about what & how I will write. The first month is the easiest (LOL)....
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